From the Herald Sun: Pratt life an achievement

RICHARD Pratt was a personality as big as the life he led in business, politics, in sport and the theatre. He had the gift of success, but he gave through his remarkable philanthropy.

There were many sides to the character of a poor Jewish immigrant who became one of Australia’s richest men and head of an international corporate empire.

Mr Pratt, who was a strong supporter of Jewish causes, died at his home at Raheen, which was the former palace of Australia’s staunchest Roman Catholic, Archbishop Daniel Mannix.

Mr Pratt was a philanthropist who did not limit his generosity to his own faith.

He gave to all and should be remembered for the work of the Pratt Foundation as much as his other achievements.

His place in the business life of the country should not be overshadowed by the charges brought against him after admitting his responsibility in a price-fixing scandal.

In any case, this evidence was found to be inadmissable and the charges dropped and it is his contribution to national life that deserves to be remembered.

The Pratt Foundation supports a range of charities as well as the arts.

The respect in which he was held was shown by those who visited him as he was dying at Raheen.

He returned his Companion of the Order of Australia and stepped down as president of the Carlton Football Club because of the court action, but he led the club’s resurgence and was visited in his last days by the club’s champions.

Richard Pratt was a man of many parts. He was a champion junior footballer at Carlton as well as an amateur boxer at Melbourne University and became a friend of world heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali, who was a guest at Raheen.

He was also an actor and singer who turned away from a career in Hollywood to build his global business empire.

The handsome young Polish immigrant was a star in London and New York of the quintessential Australian play, The Summer of the Seventeenth Doll, in which he played sugarcane cutter Johnnie Dowd…

I did a profile on him several years ago. May he rest in peace.